A sophomore student-athlete walked into the Athletics Annex, home of the study hall for all the Central Washington University athletes, looking like she was ready to cry.

Mal Stewman, the academic success coordinator for student-athletes, approached her asking her what was wrong. The student was having a hard time with an accounting class she was taking.

The two of them looked into changing the student’s major into one that was a better fit, and now she’s having all kinds of success.

When Dennis Francois took over as athletics director in 2013, he added the full-time academic success coordinator position for the first time.

Stewman oversees the Wildcat Academic Success Center in the Athletics Annex building.  He works with student athletes to create the best academic experience for them.

“Mal’s been around the university for a long time, [and] has had his own academic challenges,” Francois said. “Mal has a great rapport with our student athletes, knows a lot of people on campus [and] can identify with our student-athletes.”

Stewman does the advising for the student-athletes until they get into their major.

According to Gary Hyatt, associate athletic director for internal affairs, Stewman’s job is also educating the student-athletes on the university resources available to them, which includes the writing and math centers and how to approach a teacher.

According to NCAA.org, academic success rate (ASR) is one way that a school’s success is rated. ASR gives student-athletes six years to graduate, with a four-year average among them.

Over the last 10 years of incoming classes, CWU’s two best years have been 2003 and 2004, with a 77 percent success rate. CWU’s worst year was 2008, when students had a 64 percent success rate.

Federal graduation rate (FGR) is a federally mandated calculation for schools offering athletic scholarships. This leaves out transfer students and measures student-athletes graduation rates from their initial schools within six years of enrolling in school.

CWU has remained in the 60s and high 50s on FGR; its best year was 1999 at 69 percent and their worst years were 2000 and 2008 at 59 percent.

According to Francois, CWU is one of the rare Division-II schools that has a building dedicated to academics for student-athletes, which helps a lot in recruiting.

The school sets student-athletes up for success with an initial series of tests which they use to decide which classes they are eligible to take. They look at subject areas in which athletes struggle, schedule meetings and put an emphasis on those areas.

“We’d rather be proactive than reactive,” Francois said.

Many athletes have a tough transition from high school to college and some are not used to playing a year-round sport.

“Time management is a huge transition for student-athletes when they come here,” Stewman said.

According to Stewman, this change includes the level of expectation with practice times, workout times and school schedules.

Freshman student-athletes are required to spend four hours a week in the Athletics Annex. Lower-GPA students could be asked to spend six hours a week on a case-by-case basis.

Traveling is still one of the toughest parts of being a student-athlete. A good example is the softball team, which went to California for nine days to play in the NCAA West Regional Tournament. After winning that, they traveled north to play in the Super Regional.

Before the tournament started, the athletics department sent letters warning professors.

“With the amount of games they play, going across two quarters, it’s tough,” Francois said.

The team still missed eight days of classes, but technology has helped make education easier.

“Ultimately, we’re going to lose students,” Hyatt said. “We’re going to have students not come to class, students that don’t make the right choices or cannot manage this college-athletic life.”

Hyatt agrees that going to college is a challenge for anyone and it’s the school’s job to give them the resources to succeed.